Fun & Relaxed Camping Walled Garden Wedding

When taking those first few tentative steps on your wedding planning journey, one of the best places to start is with the question: what is your story? And if you’re not sure yet on the answer to that, simply look to the things you love, and you’ll find yourselves reflected there.

WWW readers Liam and Casey chose to get married at the Scrivelsby Walled Garden in Lincolnshire and wanted their wedding to be a celebration of all their greatest passions – the outdoors, camping, food, music, and family. Every element of the day was designed to bring their loved ones together in a place where they could relax, have fun, and make the most of the beauty of nature. The marquee and bell tents set the scene, to be filled throughout the day with garden games, laughter, and a wonderland of foliage. This secret garden was made all the more special for the faux flowers bouquets, backdrops, and centrepieces all lovingly made by the bride herself. And what a bride she was! The fiercely gorgeous Casey can be seen below, in these wonderful captures by Brook Rose Photography, jumping on space hoppers, dancing in wellies, and soaking up every magical moment of the day. As the sky darkened, out came the glitter bar, ice cream van, sparklers, and s’mores, as the revellers sang, embraced, and kept warm by the fire pit until the early hours of the morning.

We hope you enjoy the authenticity and wildness of this wedding as much we did!

The Proposal

London, New Years Eve, December 2012. Let’s just say the proposal didn’t go quite as planned, the night before Liam took me to Chelsea for a swanky meal, where I sliced my thumb open on a lobster tail and fainted (now I know why they give you the lobster crackers) I came round to waiters and Liam fanning me down with menu’s. The next evening we went to Altitude 360, just as the fireworks were going off and we cheered in the New Year, Liam got down on one knee, I stumbled back in shock. Tripping over the barrier and falling in to someone’s table knocking their drinks, the bouncer then came over and wondered what was kicking off, only to find both me and Liam on the floor. Liam still tells me to this day, if it had gone smoothly and to plan, it wouldn’t have been me he was proposing to!

The Vision

We both just wanted a relaxed, fun wedding, our favourite things are camping, being outdoors, food and drink, so our wedding was heavily based on this notion, we wanted a camping weekend with our guests staying in Bell Tents, BBQ, chilled music in the day with garden games and then a evening full of dancing, raving, glitter and Jagerbombs. The weekend went exactly as we imagined and we finished the night surrounded by our closest friends and family singing our hearts out in a huge group hug, then around the campfire toasting marshmallows and carrying on the party.

The Planning Process

Liam was working away for a large majority of the planning, so it kept me busy and sane. He got to do all the fun parts of the planning, such as cake tasting and picking and tasting our ice cream flavours, but would also have me bombarding him with spreadsheets, photos and ideas (and didn’t moan once, even with the time difference, which I would often forget when browsing Pinterest at 10pm or the £££ phone bill for oversea charges!) My bridesmaids and friends were a massive help with making things, although I’m sure bribing them with cocktails was their main motive. I miss making things and planning so much, so enjoy it whilst it lasts.

The Budget

Lets just say our budget kind of went out the window, mostly because of last minute, panic buys days before the wedding! I really wanted a videographer and I’m so glad we ended up getting one, it’s definitely something we would have regretted not getting!

Beauty

I had Jessica’s Make-up fix my face and what an amazing job she did, it stayed in place all day, even through torrential downpour! All the bridesmaids and Mum’s looked amazing as well and I’m so glad I chose her, I now have my own MUA on speed dial.

The Bridal Hair Professionals did the bridal parties hair and everyone looked incredible, her work really is flawless and nothing was too much trouble.

Bridesmaids Outfits

We picked our two favourite colours and let our bridesmaids pick their dresses, it just made things easier, especially with having two pregnant bridesmaids! MAYA – ASOS.

The Dress

I had a vision in mind of what I wanted, champagne/blush, lace, beading, very 1920’s. The dress I went for was the complete opposite, white, satin and plain, I spruced it up a little by adding an off the shoulder lace bolero for the church and by the evening took it off, so I could freely strut my stuff on the dance floor. I teamed it up with my wellies and I couldn’t have felt more comfortable AND a massive bonus was I got my dress new for £300, so when it ripped whilst flying off the space hopper and was covered in mud, grass stains and paw prints, I really wasn’t bothered.

Groom & Groomsmen Outfits

The groom wore a grey suit, with a tweed waistcoat and sage green/teal tie with tan brogues. The ushers and fathers wore matching suits, all from a small suit specialist in our local village.

Your Photographer

I love photography! It’s a big passion of mine and something I definitely wanted to invest in, in capturing the moments and memories, and all I can say is I’m so glad we booked Brook Rose Photography. Her work is so natural and her style is edited beautifully. We had a pre-wedding shoot with her in a local forest, she was lovely and warm and we instantly hit it off. She was perfect for the style of wedding we were having, not intrusive and so relaxed – half the time we didn’t even realise she was shooting and we now have stunning photographs of memories we will never forget.

The Venue

We got married in a Secret Walled Garden in Scrivelsby, the church was next door and there was a huge field at the back of the venue for our guests to camp, it was everything we were looking for.

The Details & Decor

The fun part! All hand-made and I now secretly wish I could give up my job and start my own venue décor and design business (I’m officially a pro at calligraphy). The theme… foliage, foliage, foliage. We wanted to bring the outside, in, so went a bit mad on the greenery and made the backdrop, hanging centrepiece and artificial grass bunting. I’m a massive crazy dog lady, so to incorporate them in to our wedding, I bought 120 Puppy in my Pocket dogs from the 90’s and spray painted them gold for name places. We did s’more wedding favours for our guest to use on the firepit and had a table full of homemade cakes (my mum suddenly turned in to Mary Berry in the build up to the wedding, her cheesecakes are to die for!!) We had a glitter bar and rave station, everyone was covered in glitter by the end of the night and wearing glow stick earrings and glasses. We did a polaroid guestbook and had guestionnaires (questionnaires for guests) we had such a laugh reading them back the next day, we’ve come to realise a lot of are friends are dirty minded and are terrible at drawing!

The Flowers

I made my bridal bouquet myself, I bought artificial flowers, foliage and succulents from Home Sense and had a little play around, my bridal bouquet cost me £58 and what was left over I used to make the button holes and corsages.

The Cake

We stumbled across Bakehouse94 by chance, I sent her a message and told her what we had in mind and she did not disappoint! It was exactly what we wanted, she even swayed us to go for a chocolate cake as it was that good, chocolate sponge, salted caramel and chocolate ganache. The only downside, we forgot to give pieces of the cake out… the upside, I’ve put 7lbs on since the wedding, just from eating our wedding cake!

Music

We found our wedding band on Alive Network, hours of listening to different artists, we just couldn’t find anything we liked, then we stumbled upon Season. They were the full package, they did an acoustic set for our welcome drinks, then played two full sets in the evening, as well as a DJ’ing and their voices are incredible!!

The Honeymoon

We originally planned to go campervanning around Scotland with our two cocker spaniels. However due to the massive generosity from our guests, we booked a last minute holiday to Holbox on the Gulf of Mexico, it was amazing! Flamingos in the sea, turtle nesting beaches and we swam with Whale Sharks. Definitely the relaxation we needed after the manic build up to the wedding.

Memorable Moments

As cliché as it seems, seeing Liam’s reaction to me walking down the aisle is something I will never forget (there may have been tears, cue me secretly celebrating!) but in all seriousness, I didn’t notice anybody else whilst walking down the aisle, only Liam.

Not being able to say my vows, I was so nervous and when I’m nervous I laugh, A LOT! Thankfully the whole church was laughing with me, I did have to reassure the Vicar I was taking the vows seriously though!

Accidentally losing control of my bladder whilst choking on cake that Liam shoved in my mouth (I literally inhaled it, it wasn’t my proudest moment, but it’s certainly memorable ha!).

Camping after the wedding, we stayed up until 4am laughing and drinking with friends around the firepit, followed by a BBQ breakfast the next morning.

Advice For Other Couples

Me and Liam went for a ride in the car with some champagne just after we got married. Taking time out, just us two, to take everything in and talk, laugh and cuddle (cue some amazing photographs) it was the best thing we did. Definitely take time just you and your partner, it’s such an overwhelming day, there’s so much going on, so many people to speak to and it’s nice to just have some one on one time.

Also, a lot of things didn’t go to plan on the day, but I didn’t even notice and the things I did, I just let it go. I was so caught up on having a good time and it’s important to remember your guests don’t know what you have planned or what’s meant to happen. Just enjoy yourselves! A lot of time, money and effort has gone in to this day ♥

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Liam and Casey, thank you so much for sharing your super fun celebrations with us and thanks also to their photographer Brook for allowing us to share these epic images. Val x